Delhi-London Flight Cancelled After Heathrow Airport Limits Number of Passengers; More Likely to Get Affected

British Airways and Air India are also expected to cancel or reschedule some of their India-Heathrow flights to adhere to the passenger number limits, according to an aviation industry source.

New Delhi: As Heathrow Airport decided this week to limit the number of passengers to one lakh a day to cope with an ongoing staff crunch, the Virgin Atlantic cancelled its Delhi-London flight on Thursday and other airlines are expected to follow suit, reported news agency PTI. There are 102 direct flights a week between India and London’s Heathrow airport — British Airways (41), Virgin Atlantic (21), Air India (33) and Vistara (seven).

Due to mandatory flight capacity restrictions being implemented by Heathrow Airport on all airlines on Thursday 14 July, we’ve regrettably had to cancel one of our London Heathrow – New York (JFK) return services, operating as flight numbers VS45 and VS4 and our morning departure to Delhi, flight VS302,” Virgin Atlantic said in a statement.

The airline added that it is contacting affected customers and will rebook them on an alternative flight on the same day wherever possible with the option to rebook on a later date or request a refund.

Here are 5 points for this big story on Heathrow airport’s passenger cap:

1. The limits on passenger numbers imposed by Heathrow airport will remain from July 12 to September 11.
2. British Airways and Air India are also expected to cancel or reschedule some of their India-Heathrow flights to adhere to the passenger number limits, according to an aviation industry source.
3. Vistara operates a daily Delhi-Heathrow flight and it has not been affected as yet, said a senior executive of the airline. However, the airline did not respond to PTI’s request for a statement on the matter.
4. On July 12, Heathrow Airport’s CEO John Holland-Kaye said in a statement that over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded one lakh per day, the airport has started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable.
5. Long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations were cited as the reason behind the decision by the airport.

(With inputs from PTI)